The Quakers and the American Revolution (review)

58Quaker History The Quakers and the American Revolution. By Arthur J. Mekeel. York, Eng.: Sessions, 1996. ? + 420 pp. Illustrations, appendixes, notes, bibliography , and index. Paper. Arthur Mekeel's Quakers and the American Revolution was originally conceived as a doctoral dissertation at Harvard University under the direction of Arthur Schlesinger Sr. in 1940. Almost immediately, the manuscript was hailed as an invaluable library resource for those scholars working in the field of late eighteenth-century Anglo-American relations. In 1975, Mekeel updated the work, incorporating the scholarship of four decades, and published it with the University Press of America under the title, The Relation ofthe Quakers to the American Revolution. When the book went out ofprint several years ago, many scholars urged the author to republish. Fortunately, Mekeel complied. With the assistance ofthe Ebor Press a revised and updated version of this seminal work is once again available to scholars. Quakers and the American Revolution illuminates the struggle of late eighteenth century American Friends between their pacifist convictions and responsibilities to the state. Mekeel shows that individual Friends as well as meetings from New England to North Carolina had varying responses to the impending crisis and war between Great Britain and the North American colonies. Many urban Quaker merchants, for example, participated in the early phase ofcolonial resistance, involving matters of constitutional interpretation and economic means of protest. But they withdrew their support when the colonies resorted to war. While their response allowed them to reaffirm the Society's traditional Peace Testimony , it also caused them to suffer severe penalties, including the destruction ofproperty and, in some cases, imprisonment. On the other hand, there were those Friends whojoined the Continental Army and fought for American independence. Still others actively supported the American war effort by paying taxes, helping to collect revenues to finance the conflict, and serving on committees for defense. Disownment from membership in the Society ofFriends was the price for their military compliance, as pacifism had become, perhaps, the most fundamental article of faith among late-eighteenth century Quakers. Ofparticular interest are Mekeel's extensive chronicling ofthe relationship between Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and London Yearly Meeting, which encouraged American Friends to support colonial resistance while it attempted to persuade the mother country to adopt more conciliatory measures; his serious reconsideration of the Free Quakers, those Friends disowned for aiding, in some way, the American cause due to their fierce Book Reviews59 allegiance to liberty of conscience; and a thoughtful examination of the extensive relief activities in which Friends engaged to address the sufferings caused by the war. The strength ofthis book is clearly Mekeel's meticulous research and the extensive documentation he uses to support his thesis, which includes: monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting minutes from Maryland, New England, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia as well as London; legislative proceedings from the original thirteen colonies; and diaries,journals, and correspondence from the major historical actors ofthe period. Although the author does not engage the historiography of the last decade as thoroughly as he might have, Mekeel does not pretend to offer the "last word" on this important subject. Those scholars more interested, for example, in the spiritual reformation that was intensified by the Friends' Revolutionary experience as well as the abolitionist activities which where inspired by that experience should read Jack Marietta's Reformation of American Quakerism, 1 748-1 783 (University ofPennsylvaniaPress, 1984). Nevertheless, Mekeel's work fulfills the ultimate objectives to which every historian should aspire: to contribute an extremely valuable piece of scholarship to one's chosen field of study; and to inspire others to pursue further scholarship in that same area. William C. KashatusWilliam Penn Charter School Philadelphia, PA ...